On the morning after the two days off, Diniel looked somewhat sad as she sipped on a bowl of corn soup for breakfast. Daryl finished off his meal in no time, and Amira gobbled hers down as if to compete with him, creating a little mess as a result.
“Oh, like I said yesterday, Amira will start using <<Dragon Form>> now. Do keep that in mind.”
“Got it, Teach!”
“If I forget to cast <<Medic>> quickly enough, Daryl’s going to be the first one she attacks, so you and Diniel don’t have to worry that much.”
“I’d prefer that you don’t forget, then.” Daryl said and scowled at Tsutomu while still stuffing his cheeks with ham sandwich.
“Anyyyway, that’s all from me. Does anyone else have anything to report?”
“Nope, not me.”
“You’d better remember to cast <<Medic>>, Sir Tsutomu!” Daryl reminded Tsutomu, speaking with breadcrumbs all around his mouth.
“I know, I know.”
Tsutomu proceeded to look around, and it was apparent that no one had anything else to say. Once breakfast was done, each member went to their own room to get geared up, then headed to the Guild together.
“You look… even less energetic than usual,” Tsutomu said to Diniel.
“I don’t wanna work,” Diniel answered, sounding sulky while dragging her feet along her way.
Noticing that Diniel’s ponytail had been half-heartedly tied together today, Tsutomu raised an eyebrow, somewhat disturbed.
“Just don’t slack off while we’re in the Dungeon, all right?”
“Yeah, sure. It’ll be better once I’m in the Guild — it’s the part before then that I don’t like,” Diniel grumbled and sighed, her eyes as sleepy as ever.
To her side, Daryl cracked a dry smile while walking along, his heavy armor clattering all the while.
“So, Amira? How are you holding up?” Tsutomu turned to ask Amira.
“Perfectly fine. Been fine since yesterday.”
“All right. Just wanted to say again that you have to rest when you need to. You’ll be using <<Dragon Form>> starting today, after all.”
“…I know.”
Amira quickly looked away, and ended up looking at the foot stalls instead. Hannah, seeing that, circled around to Amira’s front and started lecturing the latter.
“Those two sure are getting along now, don’t you think?” Tsutomu commented.
“I don’t know… Doesn’t look exactly like that to me,” Daryl said and tilted his head… while chowing down some honey toast that he had gotten from one of the stalls while no one was looking.
“…And you’re still eating?”
“For breakfast desserts, yes.”
Tsutomu was taken aback by Daryl’s appetite, wondering how that heavy breakfast was still not enough, but did not comment further since the Guild was already in view.
The Guild was crowded, as one would expect. It has always been, but Explorers had become more active than ever since the Volcano floors had been revealed. Tsutomu waved to Garm, who stood on guard in front of the Black Gate, and then lined up for the reception desk.
Monitor #1 was showing Ealdred Crow, in the middle of a battle against a Mount Golem. Monitor #2 showed Scarlet Devil Squad and Monitor #3 showed Silver Beast.
“Hey, Tsutomu,” A certain man with short golden hair called Tsutomu and tapped on the latter’s shoulder.
It was none other than the golden-haired wolfman Leon, and he greeted Tsutomu with a hearty smile once the latter turned around to him.
“Leon! Good morning!” Tsutomu returned the greeting and took a look at Leon’s party members.
Accompanying the wolfman today were Barbara, whose physique was suitable for her Tank role; Eunice, the team’s Healer; and another member who also seems to be a Tank. It seems that their team composition had changed, opting instead to have two Attackers, two Tanks, and one Healer.
Reducing the number of Attackers like this was possibly the preferable option if they were to get the best performance out of Leon. Better yet, having Leon as the only Attacker would be interesting to see. While Tsutomu was pondering over Golden Tune’s party composition, Barbara greeted him, prompting him to answer by bowing.
…And then there was Eunice, taking frequent glances at him, which he pretended not to notice.
“So, these guys and gals are your Clan members, eh?”
Once Tsutomu was done looking at Leon’s team, the latter proceeded to look at Tsutomu’s new friends… and along the way, he whistled at Hannah’s cleavage once they entered his line of sight. Hannah promptly put her hands over her chest, while grinning bitterly at how shameless Leon was.
“You sure got some… impressive people with you.”
“Don’t try to poach members from us now, alright?”
“C’mon, man, that’s coming from you? You did take Diniel away from us, y’know…” Leon exaggerated his tone, making a joke in good spirit.
“Yes, and I think we should have… handled that better, like telling you about it earlier in advance. It all happened too suddenly, I’m sure.” Tsutomu responded and bowed his head, taking the statement seriously.
The unexpected seriousness of the response caused Leon to freeze over, and then he urged Tsutomu to stop bowing.
“Hey, I actually didn’t mind that, man! I mean, you saved our asses back during the Stampede, and besides, transferring to another Clan like that don’t happen on a whim, I understand!”
“Uh, well, thank you.”
“Really, it’s fine! Not like I was ever in a relationship with her anyway — there’s no attachment between us at all!… I mean, that one time I tried hitting on her, I almost got killed!”
Leon laughed and tapped on Tsutomu’s shoulder. The person in question, Diniel, simply looked at Leon, showing no interest in the situation at all.
“You heard him. Don’t worry about it, Tsutomu.”
“…Damn it! It’s been so long since I last felt this… humiliated!”
Leon joked around with an exaggerated reaction again, this time activating <<Gold Bless>> and instantly zooming away. Daryl and Hannah only stood there and blinked, astonished by how quickly Leon had disappeared. The other Golden Tune members proceeded to chase after Leon.
“…Hmph.”
Eunice shot a little glare at Diniel before leaving the Guild with the others. Diniel looked somewhat sad to be looked at like that.
“I’m sorry, Diniel.”
“If I knew she was going to hate me that much, I would’ve tried grabbing her tail once or twice…”
“Uh…”
Tsutomu was at a loss for words, and instead proceeded to walk to an available reception counter.
――▽▽――
“<<Medic>>”
Tsutomu cast a quickshot version of the spell at Amira; she still could not control her transformation, and as such, has been attacking Daryl with her greatsword. Amira leaped up to dodge the shot, and the moment she landed, Tsutomu cast a wide carpet-like version of <<Medic>> below her feet.
Upon contact with the spell, Amira’s <<Dragon Form>> was disengaged, and she collapsed on the spot like an unsupported puppet.
“All right, help her up, Daryl,” Tsutomu said before proceeding to collect the Magic Stones that had fallen on the ground.
Hannah scrambled to pick up as many Magic Stones as she could, which got a dry chuckle out of Tsutomu, and then, she carried an armful of Colorless Magic Stones for the latter to store away.
The team has been in the Dungeon since early morning, and now the time was approaching noon. The introduction of Amira’s <<Dragon Form>> into the regular battle routine has been successful so far. Although her transformed state was difficult to handle, it certainly was quite powerful.
The skill was not without its glaring issues, however. Tsutomu had to make sure to cast <<Medic>> after each fight, increased workload on Daryl’s part, and most important of all, Amira could not learn anything.
While her yet uncontrollable transformation was active, Amira would be completely unaware of what was happening, and in turn, killing monsters would not improve her combat skills. Her level would still go up, of course, which was good by itself — but Amira was not yet a particularly skilled fighter. As such, Tsutomu had figured that it would not be good to have her full focus on practicing the <<Dragon Form>>.
“Let’s see… I think your <<Dragon Form>> practice should stay in the mornings for now. Your teamwork with Daryl is still not that great, Amira.”
“…Wait, I thought you wanted me to master my unique skill? Shouldn’t I be using it the whole time?”
“No, you should improve your teamwork as well — the sooner the better. You’ll get to practice more once you have that down.”
“……”
Amira briefly seemed baffled at Tsutomu’s decision, and in the end, she scowled and turned away.
Tsutomu proceeded to take out his pocket watch from his Magic Bag to check the time, and seeing that it was almost noon, he called the exploration off. Hannah walked over to Tsutomu, a hearty smile painted on her face.
“Teach! I’m in first place today!”
“Right.”
“But Sir Tsutomu, I had to help Amira up after every fight! If not for that, I would’ve won! I’m calling for a fair evaluation here!” Daryl protested.
“How much do you even eat in one day, anyway?” Tsutomu blurted out, and in the end refused to override the decision, giving Hannah the right to order one free dessert after lunch.
Daryl knelt down with both his hands on the ground, utterly defeated.
“Hehehe! I finally got a win!”
“Aw… I was looking forward to it, too…”
While Hannah proudly raised her chin and boasted of her victory, Daryl seemed too demotivated to even stand.
“You know you could just buy it yourself, right?” Tsutomu said.
“…Oh, right.” Daryl replied and stood back up, suddenly perfectly satisfied.
As it turned out, he was not obsessed with winning at all, and had been gunning for the free dessert just to pacify his appetite.
“All right, time for lunch! Where should we go today?”
“Hmm, let’s see…”
Hannah felt somewhat sad to see Daryl back out of the competition so easily, realizing just now how empty a race without any other competitor was.
Later, during the meal, Hannah ordered her dessert, choosing the exact same ice cream that Daryl had had the other day. She proceeded to shave off just a single bite, then slid the bowl over to Daryl.
“You can have the rest of it…”
“Yay!”
The taste of the dessert — the one Hannah had ‘won’ for herself — was quite different from what she had expected.
